"PoPsie's" Impact on Music History

William Randolph was the preeminent paparazzo photographer of the New York music
scene from the 1940's through the 1970's. Literally living in his studio
shooting on assignment for various record companies, publicity firms, newspapers
and trade magazines, he chronicled the transition from the Big Bands into the
small tight Jazz combos.

He was
also there for the jump from the studio crafted pop of Tin Pan Alley to the
savage rhythms of Rock and Roll and the uptown sounds of rhythm & blues into the
soul that laid the foundation of today's sounds. The 100,000 negatives left
behind after Randolph's death in 1978 constitute a truly astounding collection.
The range of the material is astonishing:
When Frank Sinatra was named "King of
the Singers" at The Copa during a broadcast on WINS with comic Phil Silvers
officiating; "PoPsie" was there to snap the "King" with his crown. When
Elvis Presley came
to New York to cut his first records for RCA Victor, "PoPsie" was in the studio
with him. When Bobby Darin signed with Atlantic Records (for the string of hits
that included the smash "Mack the Knife"), "PoPsie" got the shot. When
Harry
Belafonte entered a New York studio to launch the mid-50's calypso craze,
"PoPsie" documented the occasion. He also photographed all of the major teen
idols through the years from Eddie Fisher and
Tab Hunter to
Frankie Avalon,
Jimmy Clanton and Fabian.

He
captured the
Righteous Brothers in the recording studio and
Smokey Robinson and
the Miracles onstage during an appearance of the Ed Sullivan show. He snapped Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers ("Why Do Fools Fall in Love") boarding a plane
for their first and only British tour.

"PoPsie" also captured the times when the music world carried over to other
areas like sports and politics. He photographed Jackie Robinson and Buddy
Johnson when they collaborated on the single "Did you see Jackie Robinson hit
that Ball".

He
captured
Robert Kennedy when he collaborated with the release of the "Kennedy
Years" recordings. "PoPsie" was also present at release parties, movie premiers
and at numerous other functions all around the city. "PoPsie" was there when
Elizabeth Taylor arrived at the world premiere of James Dean's last movie
"Giant" in 1957. The list of celebrities from the movie, sports and
entertainment worlds is almost as vast as the performers from the music world.

When
disc jockey Alan Freed invented Rock & Roll at his renowned all-day concerts at
the
Paramount Theatre and the
Brooklyn Fox in the 50's, "PoPsie" was there,
clicking off priceless performance and backstage shots of such immortals as
Bill
Haley and the Comets; Bo Diddley; The Platters and many other performers,
including spontaneous crowd shots that captured the moment.

Thanks to his photographs, "PoPsie" captured the true heart of the original rock & roll explosion.

Another
facet of the "PoPsie" style was his affinity for odd couples:
Chuck Berry
jamming with
Trini Lopez ("If I had a Hammer");
Perry Como at the
piano with Brenda Lee ;
Alan
Freed trading one-liners with
Salvador Dali;
Count Basie backing up Pat Boone, of all people, on a TV special;
Dr. Joyce Brothers
interviewing the
Beatles; beefcake singer
Tom Jones
hanging out with the
Rolling Stones at the New York Playboy Club;
Nat "King" Cole
meeting composer W. C.
Handy ("St. Louis Blues);
Ella Fitzgerald nightclubbing with the great
Billie Holiday. These unique shots offer fascinating glimpses of an era that has never
before been so lovingly detailed.

"PoPsie" was
always after the one-of-a-kind shot, and he succeeded with a startling
consistency because most of his subjects trusted him. "PoPsie" was a friend to
a lot of the entertainers stemming from his early days as "Sweeney the Greek", a
shoeshine boy that hung out around nightclubs during the early thirties. He
also was a close personal friend of
Benny Goodman who got "PoPsie" started by
purchasing his first camera as a wedding gift and financing his venture for the
first two years after he got started in the early 1940's.

"PoPsie" also excelled at portraiture. His rates were among the highest in the
industry at the time and for good reason. He was great at capturing the moment
in the studio. Some of the biggest names in the industry utilized "PoPsie" as
their portrait photographer and he always delivered the best.

"PoPsie's" work in portraits, usually for record company publicity departments
anxious to present memorable images of their artists, always exceeded their
expectations. In this traditionally restrictive format, "PoPsie" created an
aura of innocent eagerness about his subjects that is today recognizable as a
full-fledged style, much in the way that George Hurrell, working in Hollywood,
forged a style out of movie-star portraits. Had it not been for "PoPsie", many
of these pioneering artists would be nothing but blanks in our cultural
consciousness today.

Who
else, after all, photographed that greatest of the one-hit wonder doo-wop
groups, the Penguins ("Earth Angel")? Who else got shots of the
Dominoes (Sixty
Minute Man" - and a group that spawned both
Clyde
McPhatter and
Jackie Wilson);
Question Mark and the Mysterians ("96 Tears") and
Darlene Love, the soaring gospel lead on many of the
great Phil Spector records of the early '60s and who also later co-starred in
the series of "Lethal Weapon" movies as Danny Glover's on screen wife?

Among
the many other artists "PoPsie" shot were
Aretha Franklin;
Ben E. King andThe
Drifters; Carole King (an original Brill Building songwriter in the late 50's,
now known for having recorded one of the best-selling albums of all time,
Tapestry); electric-guitar pioneer Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford; Motown
superstars Marvin Gaye and
Mary Wells; producers
Phil Spector,
Quincy Jones, Lou
Adler and
Don Kirshner (the creator of the mid-60s "bubblegum" sound);
Brook
Benton ("It's Just a Matter of Time");
Bobby "Blue" Bland ("Turn on Your Love
Light"); famous NY city disc jockey
Murray "The K" Kaufman ("The Fifth Beatle");
and Sam "The Sham" Samudio ("Wooly Bully") and many others. From the Jazz world
he photographed dozens of performers as diverse as
Freddie Hubbard,
Dr. Billy
Taylor, Max Roach,
Sonny Stitt and vocalists like
Peggy Lee,
Esther Phillips,
Anita O'Day and
Cathy Preston.

His portrait
of Miles Davis from the early 50's brings back the brooding cool of the bebop
era with accuracy unmatched by any other contemporary lens man.